Better Man
by lostmidtranslation
Summary: “Comfortable?” I grin as I stride towards the drop, letting her legs go on purpose. She starts to slide down my body but shrieks and clings on tighter.“Fred!” She shouts hoarsely, “…d-don’t let me go.” ... Some Fratie Romance on a clifftop... T for Lang.


_**A/N - Supplying the world with FRATIE romance stories… **_

_**Funky Disclaimer: ****Borrowing lyrics from James Morrison (They aren't mine. I'll give them back later),**_

_**Borrowing Characters from JK Rowling (Woo Hoo! I didn't invent anything you recognise here!),**_

_**But putting them into a slightly Alternate Universe!**_

_**Hope you enjoy!!**_

_---------------_

_I said you are the reason  
For everything that I do  
I'd be lost, so lost, without you  
_

_-/-_

_Katie_

_-/-_

_  
_I rub my eyes.

"Katie?" His voice is muffled, but it's certainly him. "Open the window, Kat!" I run my hand through my hair as I sit up and groan. There's a flying Ford Anglia outside my window, and a certain ginger twin sitting in the drivers seat, grinning at me.

"Fred?" I blink and rub my eyes again. "Why're you at my window?"

"What?!" He yells, I stagger from my duvet hurriedly, making hurried shushing gestures, panicked. I cross to my window, standing there, arms folded. He leans forward, pressing his forehead against my windowpane. His breath fogs up the glass and I roll my eyes. I remember what he's doing here and shake my head.

When I press my hand against the window, trying to push it up and open, he returns the gesture, so our palms are separated only by an inch of double glazing. The heat from his hand ensures the glass is searing, he grins as I open the window.

"Hi." he breathes gently. I smile as he takes my hand.

"Hi." I look away, "Are we going then?" He nods; I pull my bag from my wardrobe and hand it to him. He weighs it between his hands and throws it into the back seat.

"God, Kat, what've you got in there? An Acromantula egg?" I can barely suppress the giggle that surfaces.

"Me, Fred? You appear to forget I'm terrified of spiders."

"Oh, good point. Does your mum know we're going?"

"I told her last week, left a note to make sure." He nods and offers me his hand. "In my pyjamas, Fred?"

"I won't look when you change." He laughs and attempts to pull me into the car. I slip, losing my footing and scraping my knee on the windowpane.

"Bloody hell, Fred!" I fall into his lap, looking down at my knees. The car jerks downwards and he wraps his arm around my waist protectively, stopping me from falling from my second floor window. "I'm bleeding!"

"S'not my fault you have shit slippers." He pulls them off my feet and holds them up teasingly, flings them back into my room and laughs as they hit my calendar and it collapses to the floor with a loud, papery thud.

"_Idiot_!" I hiss, hearing my mum wake up and come to my bedroom door.

"Katie?" She steps into the room and notices the open window. "Are you off then?" She says as she crosses over to it. "I'll see you later sweetheart." I lean forward in Fred's lap and kiss her goodbye.

"See you later, mum."

"I'll drop her off later, Mrs. Bell." Fred nods to my mum and heaves me away, over his lap, so my legs are out straight across his; he's steering and helping me mend myself at the same time. _**"Tergeo,"**_ he murmurs, trying to get rid of the blood dripping from the crevices in my knees.

"Where did you get the new Ford from?" I ask as he swings over the river, it glistens five hundred feet below.

"Dad got it. He was going to give it to me and George…" He falls silent for a moment at the mention of his dead twin, "but after the war, he thought it best to just put it away and never mention it." I smile at him and squeeze his upper arm. "I nicked it this morning. Thought it would be more fun than bloody Floo powder."

"Can't argue with that." I raise an eyebrow and notice suddenly that we're heading north. "Where… why are we going up, Fred? I thought we were…going south - to the seaside?"

"Change of plan." He murmurs absent-mindedly. "We're still going to some cliffs."

"But not Seaside?"

"Nope." I frown. He smiles, "It's alright… I thought we could go to… it's just somewhere me and George used to go. It's near the Burrow."

-/-

_Fred. _

-/-

She smiles and nods as I speak, knowing I'd never take her anywhere unsafe, anywhere I would never go.

We fall silent as I drive in the darkness before dawn. Watching her as I hold the car steady, I see the soft skin of her cheeks flushed with embarrassment, and realise almost too late that I still have my hand on her leg. I stretch up and feel her shift her legs from me. I'm kind of disappointed - I liked the feel of her across me, she was comfortable.

"Your knees alright?" I look at her, she smiles as she draws her knees up to her chest, hugging them tight. Her face is lit by the moonlight in the clouds.

"Yeah… they hurt, but I think it's just the shock." She nods, affirming it to herself, and we fall silent again.

Eventually, we get to the top of the mountain track George and I always used to hike up to. It's nice, really - there are never people here, never anyone to disturb us, we could make as much noise as we wanted to, and believe me, mixing Acromantula venom and Boomslang skin is quite a loud process. Today, though, I just want to sit with Katie, being, if it's humanly possible with her, close.

"Fred?" she asks after a minute's exploration in the darkness, "Are we going up there?" She gestures vaguely to the wooded area at the top of the hill, on the other side, it drops off to a sharp cliff, and you can see the sea far off from it.

I nod mutely, flashes of memory hitting me from nowhere. Me and George setting fire to Ron's birthday cake, discovering the brilliance which is the Puking Pastille, the piece-de-resistance of our Skiving Snackboxes, Bill asking us where we took girls, and then taking Fleur up there, us jumping out on them and terrifying them…

"Pass me my bag." She requests after a few seconds silence. I pull it from the back seat and swing it over my shoulder.

"I've got it." She smiles at me and waits a little way up the path, watching me. "You alright?"

"You're being very nice today." She says as I catch up with her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" I say too hurriedly. She nods disbelievingly and strides up the path in front of me. "Kat, wait!" She stops after a few seconds and I run to catch up with her, snatching her hand from down by her side.

"What're you-"

"I don't want you to get hurt."

"_Hurt_?" She questions, her voice suddenly constricted.

"You have to be careful up here… parts of the ground give way a bit randomly sometimes." Her face morphs into that of pure fear, and she grips my hand tight, curling her arm around mine. "Hey, I said sometimes." I laugh, but I hope she doesn't let go. This is the closest we've been for a long time, and strangely, I don't really _want_ her to let go.

"Fred…" She starts as I push back a branch, pausing only to duck as I let it go, "Uh… there's not… a lot of ground here, is there?"

"You noticed?"

"Well… there's a big drop. A very big drop."

"Congratulations. You're officially observant."

"Well… where do we… go?" She looks up at me, traces of uncertainty gracing her features.

"I was going to get to that." I point to the large rock near the edge, "Over that rock, is a pretty stable, quite large area where we can have our little picnic."

"But… how do we get there?" She's noticed there's not a lot of space between the rock and the rather deep abyss beneath us.

"Ah, that's the fun part." I wink at her and she shoves me gently. I turn so my back is to her. "Hop on."

"I'm sorry?"

"You've never heard of a piggyback ride before?"

"Yes, dimwit, but I-"

"Then get on."

Still muttering about '_dangerous_ _cliffs_' and '_why_ _do_ _I_ _go_ _places_ _with you?_', she takes a running leap at my back and locks her legs around my torso, her arms around my neck.

"Comfortable?" I grin as I stride towards the drop, letting her legs go on purpose. She starts to slide down my body but shrieks and clings on tighter.

"_Fred_!" She shouts hoarsely, "…d-don't let me go."

-/-

_  
Under the stars  
At the edge of the sea  
There's no one around  
No one but you and me  
We'd talk for hours  
As time drifts away  
I could stay here for ever  
And hold you this way_

-/-

Katie

-/-

"I feel really fat now." I mutter, staring at the half-eaten stick of French bread and the empty jam pot.

"You don't look it." Fred smiles at me and stretches up, reaching towards the sky. "And anyway, you ate about half of what I ate…"

"What?" That makes no sense.

"I ate two thirds, you ate one… you know?" I nod, doing the maths in my head. He stretches again and yawns. "I'm bloody knackered." He smiles at me, his eyelids drooping slightly.

"You've eaten. That's all." He laughs loudly and lies back on the grass, "Oh… well, you did drive us up here too."

He's already snoring. I lay back on the soft grass and he snuffles quietly.

"Fred?" I whisper. He grunts and rolls over. Bloody man. Always falls asleep after eating. Typical.

Thirty-five minutes later, I'm terribly bored. I draw my wand and whisper _aguamenti,_ watching the water arc through the air and onto his chest. He launches up, looking tired and confused, and draws his wand, terrified.

"Katie?! Are you alright?" He looks at me through plastered-down, soaking wet hair and grins, before pulling it away from his face and grinning at me. I nod and he smiles back, returning to his seat. "Well, then why'd you wake me up?"

"'Cos I'm bored!" I whine pathetically and he rolls his eyes.

"Well… maybe we could play a game?"

"OK…" I'm suddenly scared at how this is going to go. "What game?" A small pause, "If you're going to suggest naked-muggle-twister then I'm going to throw you off that cliff!" I gesture and he smiles at me.

"I was just suggesting… playing a game of get to know each other-"

"But you know me." I say softly.

"I know. But for fun… just humour me, Kat." I nod. "OK. Right. It's like a guessing game, OK?"

"Yeah…" I nod, he smiles evilly, "but there's a twist, isn't there?"

"If you guess wrong when I ask the questions, you get a forfeit. Is that cool?" Suddenly, I'm full of confidence.

"That's cool. I know everything about you!"

"I'm sure you do." he says in a voice that essentially tells me that he's got some secrets.

-/-

Fred

-/-

She licks her lips and sits there, waiting for me to ask the first question.

"Just how many girlfriends have I really fallen for?" I say softly. She doesn't waste a second.

"Three from eleven." She reels off.

"Wrong. None of them. Still waiting for the right girl." She looks at me, blushes and looks away.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" She says with a sly grin. "Prove it." I nod.

"Thought you'd say that." I produce the tiny bottle from my pocket. "Veritaserum."

"Clearly." She nods. "You're good, you are." I pour the clear liquid into the two cups I have from our picnic. "Give it here then." False bravado, surely.

"A sip per question, Kat." I say softly. "Don't want to waste it."

"Cool." I sip the drink and she watches me.

"I've never really fallen for a girl." She nods as I speak.

"Well then, what's my forfeit?"

"Come and sit here." I speak without thinking. Sodding Veritaserum. "On my lap."

She blushes, but does it anyway.

"Your question." I say softly when she is sitting comfortably and I have my arms around her.

"OK… what's my perfect job?"

"Easy. You wanted to be a journo." She sips the Veritaserum.

"I did indeed want to be a journo."

"Where did I always want to grow up?"

"…"

"Katie?"

"I'm thinking." she folds her arms, elbowing me in the chest as she does so. "Uhhh… Australia?"

"Actually," I say as I sip my Veritaserum, "No, I wanted to grow up in a land full of chocolate."

"Right." She sighs and looks at me. "Next forfeit."

"You've gotta put your arms around me."

"Oh, Come on, Fred. Can't you think of something that doesn't involve a vaguely sexual moment between you and I-" She pauses, "Oh." And she goes bright pink.

"Oh."

"You…"

"I do…" She takes my hand, weighs it in hers. "Kind of like you, Katie."

"You talk like your twelve." She mutters. "You like me or what?" Oh, the bloody Veritaserum is going to have a field day now.

"Yes. Since sixth year." She blushes pink. "Why're you blushing?"

"I maybe kind of like you too." She giggles, drunk on the truth potion.

"Good."

"And maybe right now I want to kiss you." She leans forward gently, topples us backwards.

"Katie… and a truth potion." I mutter softly. "Why didn't I think of this before?" She giggles and kisses me. I look at her as she pulls away.

"You're mad."

"So're you." She giggles. "I fell for you though. So it proves it."

"Too right." and very carefully, I sit up slightly and peck her on the lips. She squeaks at the contact, involuntarily, of course, and then looks at me, lying on my back, resting on my elbows, starting back up at her with a slight smile on her face.

"Love you, Fred." gently, she squeezes her knees together so she's locked her legs either side of my hips, then she smiles and releases me, falls sideways and knows that she's just let herself in for a lifetime of madness.

"Good. That would have really made the relationship awkward, if you didn't, wouldn't it?"

"Oh, shut up," She giggles and kisses my cheek.

_Now we're closer than ever. And I like it. _

_---_

_**A/N: I hope you enjoyed it!**_

_**Dear, awfulness abounds. Deary, deary me. Awful ending, in my eyes. **_

_**I'm SO bad at them! **_

_**Haha**_

_**Please R&R**_

_**xxx**_


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